Courageous Climbers

McCall-based Courageous Kids Climbing will be hosting a free wall climbing event in Driggs for children with special needs. The event is set for Sept. 10 at the Teton Rock Gym and will run from 10 a.m. until noon. Reservations are required.

According to the organization, climbing has been shown to benefit children with special needs in a variety of ways. For children with developmental challenges, it helps them to learn how to focus, enhances coordination and provides the opportunity to practice their problem-solving skills. For the child with physical challenges, utilizing the organization’s special harnesses, it provides a chance for the child to leave the horizontal world and experience the vertical world.

The Driggs event is titled "The Heidi’s Kids Climb" in memory of Heidi Hochstrasser, the manager of the Teton Rock Gym and avid local rock climber who loved to work with kids.  She is best remembered for giving each courageous climber at the Driggs events a blue ribbon for participating.  Hochstrasser was killed in an automobile accident in December of 2016.

Local rock climbers are also invited to come out and help coach the kids.

“To date we have had almost 300 courageous climbers come out to over a dozen events," said event coordinator Jeff Riechmann. "We have worked with kids facing the challenges of cerebral palsy, autism and blindness as well as many other challenges.”

To reserve a spot for your child or to volunteer to be a coach, contact Riechmann at jeffriechmann@cs.com.  For more information on the events, visit Courageous Kids Climbing on Facebook.

Based in McCall, Courageous Kids Climbing provides free opportunities for children with special needs to experience the various forms of rock climbing at events held in Idaho, Washington and California. The organization also supports the Courageous Kids Scholarship Fund which provides a $1,000 scholarship to a person with special needs from Idaho or eastern Washington to attend the University of Idaho.

Another climbing event will be held in Caldwell on Saturday, Sept. 9.